Gearing Up for Xmas

Mo has been taking over the kitchen again, this time to do a cake for my MIL's 87th birthday.  If I had of been home I would have gone a got her a proper cake board for better presentation but it tasted good and looked pretty spectacular.   MIL was only remotely aware that it her birthday but I think she enjoyed the cake.

While I was in Melbourne I took a photo of the window of Hopetoun Tea House.  I usually walk past the line up to get in when I'm in Melbourne at Christmas and never get a good look at the window display.  This time there was no line so I could take a photo.  I sent it to Mo and says maybe she can try and get a job here when she grows up.  I think I would prefer if she just opened her own version in Adelaide than move to Melbourne though.

Celtic Tree of Life Block 5 ready for download

Head to the Celtic Tree of Life Page for the latest Block download.  If you have missed out on any don't forget you can purchase the blocks from my etsy site at www.seabreezequilts.com.au.

I will need to get my act together over the next few weeks because I plan to start designing the centre block.  As this is the largest block in the quilt it may mean that the lead time may be a bit longer but I will keep you informed as I start working it out.  Once the centre block is designed I can figure out the final two knot blocks and all the fun of how I will put it all together which I have to tell you is pretty much in the air at the moment.

I'm heading to Melbourne tomorrow for work Xmas do.  I will be slotting in a bit of Xmas shopping in the morning and then join the Melbourne office for some serious eating and drinking.  

The School Year is Ending and the holidays are nearly here

Maestro finished school last week for the year.  I can't remember finishing year 10 this early.  Mo had 3 days of school this week and today is preparing for her end of year presentation tomorrow then has 2 days of excursions and nothing much next week will finish up on Tuesday.

Mo went off to her formal dinner dance last Friday and had a great time. She said all the older kids kept saying she was cute (she hates that) and she got twirled around the dance floor but one of the year twelves who presented her with glow stick glasses.  I have been forbidden from showing a picture of her on any social media but she did look lovely in her dress.

The same day was our Wedding Anniversary so we ordered Maestro a pizza and headed down to the end of the street for dinner by the beach.  It was nice just the two of us out to dinner having a conversation about stuff proving we can still do that without the kids.  We even got a perfect sunset.

I've finished Block 5 of Celtic tree of Life.  I probably should be starting the next block early so that I can get a jump on the centre block which will be block 7 but I haven't yet maybe on the weekend.

I signed up for Sarah Fielke's next BOM (I know I'm an idiot) I don't know when I will be going to get time to do it.  But there are video's involved and an interactive group so I got sucked in and there is no fabric included so I can use the stash.  I also signed up earlier for Jen Kingwell's new BOM but I'm only getting the templates for that.  I'm a sucker for templates got to have them all.

I haven't been fabric shopping in forever and I don't think my stash is suffering I am sure there is enough fabric there for at least a few hundred quilts.  I am collecting one of MO BOM this year and I have started the first block  but I am not liking the plain background fabric they have chosen, though I love all the appliqué fabric they have sent.  So I'm thinking about changing it and starting again.  

Bee Inspired Putting it All together

The final piece of the puzzle is up ready to to download.  I hope you have enjoyed the quilt and I'd love to see your finished quilt when it is done.

As always pattern will be up for a month and then be available to purchase from the shop.

Enjoy.

Liberty Love Quilt Top Finished

Love the way this one came out.  Its single bed sized and the set in triangles are a bit bigger than they needed to be so the centre floats in the border.

Also I was extremely anal and have my directional fabric facing the right way all around the edge of the quilt and I may have even fussy cut the set in triangle squares so that the pattern pretty much lined up all round the edge.  This did mean that there was some unpicking when I got it wrong but I'm so happy with the outcome I don't care about the extra couple of hours it took to get it together.

There will be a pattern at some point.  I plan to quilt it during the Xmas holidays.  Will have to look out for some suitable backing fabric soon and order in some batting.

Hibernating maybe

I feel like I've been hibernating, the other week I signed up for a trial of kindle unlimited which has become available in Australia and it has been my undoing. I've been reading quite a number of books for free and I think I will keep my subscription up.

We seem to be very busy on the weekends even though Mo is playing tennis on Friday nights instead of Saturday so I don't know exactly what we have been doing.  The only answer I can come up with is stuff.

Our pool turned green over the winter as we lost both the chlorinator and the pump, and hubby has been spending a lot of time trying to get things clear.  This week we dumped another lot of chemicals in and it seems to have done the trick and we finally got the filter working properly after a few false starts.  If its hot I am sure there will be kids in it this weekend.

I wanted to spend much of Saturday in my sewing room and didn't manage to get there until 4pm  Liberty love is coming along and after some unpicking.  I like my directional set in triangles to be all the right way and discovered I had used the top triangles on the side of a single bed quilt.

Here it is so far.  3 corners are done so I'd say it was ¾ finished.  I'm thinking of using my walking foot to quilt it, but I will probably chicken out because I find it so boring to do.  The large grey square should have something formed really needs to special quilting.

The last photo is a close up of the border fabric and I have made the triangles slightly bigger to the centre of the quilt floats.  Hopefully will have it all finished on the weekend and get a picture of it on the clothes line.

Celtic Tree of Life Block 4

Block 4 is up on the Celtic Tree of Life Page ready to download.  Remember if you have missed a month you can purchase them in my shop.  I've also updated the image to include block 6.